The End of the World As We Know It
by hamuka
Summary: When the Wattersons go insane over a chart, they send the entire town of Elmore into a downward spiral, and only Gumball can stop this situation from turning into chaos. Alternative ending/sequel to "The Fridge" from a first-time writer (who is unable to get an original title for his story). Rated M for violence and depictions of mental breakdown.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: **Hello, everyone!

...Well, I'm not sure how to start and what to include in this Author's Note. Perhaps that's a side effect of this being my first fanfic (hopefully you can bear with me on that one xD).

I think I'll start off with detailing what will and will not be in this fanfic, so you won't be wasting any more time reading this if you're not interested.

What **won't** be in this fanfic:

* Sexual themes. No, not even suggestively. This is an alternate ending/sequel to "The Fridge", c'mon.

* Probably no swear words, since I want to stay true to the starting material. If I really need to do that to convey some emotions, though, I may write in a few of them.

* No blood and gore, again, because I'm going to stay true to the starting material. And again, this may change later on. (Wow, it looks like I could actually rate this story K+ according to the ratings guide. That guide is in a serious need of an update.)

And, of course, what I **will** be including:

* A pretty grim, dark atmosphere, as you'll see in this first chapter.

* Some "offscreen" violence, or description of violence without blood and the like.

* Mental and physical breakdowns of all kinds. (Thus the "T" rating.)

* Some of my crappy imitations of the humor in the series to lighten the mood.

Also, from there on out, notes will be at the end of the chapters. Be sure to write reviews, and have fun reading the story! Well, "have fun", since, you know, this is a story about the Wattersons going insane over a chart on a fridge and sending the town into utter chaos... Whatever, just read the story.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

* * *

It was a Friday afternoon. Possibly the most joyful time of the week in the town of Elmore. Squirrels chattering with eachother, pizzas riding a bicycle together, and all sorts of random creatures bursting out happily from Elmore Junior High.

Except one of them.

Gumball Watterson was walking behind all of his classmates, with a sad expression on his face; a far cry from the other kids' attitude. He looked around, seeing all the others having fun, then he just sighed and decided to walk back to his house.

As he headed closer and closer to what he called "home", the amount of people (well, "people") started to decrease, and at one point, he was the only one within seeing distance, apart of the smiling sun. Then, suddenly, the sun also changed to an almost frightened look, before falling down on the horizon, giving way to the moon and stars. "Hey, what's your problem?" the moon asked. "It's... _that_ house." the sun replied, careful not to go above the horizon. "Oh, come on. I know that it's where the Wattersons live, and looks pretty awful, but it's not that baaaaAAAAAAAH-" The moon was interrupted by an explosion, sending a chimney straight at it, knocking it out below the horizon as well, only leaving the stars and street lamps. "You okay?" - "Yeah, I'm fine. Just have to get some bandages." Gumball sighed again, moving forward some more in the rain of clay and tile shards after the explosion; he considered it fairly normal. Finally, he reached his residency. Or what was left of it, at least.

* * *

The building and its vicinity looked like a warzone. The roof was blasted off at several places; the room of the kids was out in the open. The bricks and tile shards which flew away were scattered all around, breaking the other houses' windows and sometimes breaking holes in their roofs as well. The street lamps were distorted beyond recognition. Overall, the place belonged more to a town abandoned for 20 years than one which was still populated and had an actual police force.

As Gumball entered his house, he found that it didn't look better on the inside either. The couch was charred and toppled; pictures were thrown all over the living room. The stairs were littered with glass shards, along with the floor below. Any sane person would consider this house uninhabitable; and yet, a family of five lived there. He decided to move into the kitchen instead, to eat something.

The kitchen was in also in an awful condition; the counter was almost completely destroyed, as well as the cupboards. On the floor were some disfigured food items as well; things that Richard called the sausage pen and the cheese crayon, even though they barely resembled anything other than a lump of coal by now.

There was one item in working condition, however: the fridge, on which was a chart with pictures of the family members on it. Nicole was, naturally, on top. That was the cause of all the problems. Gumball just opened the fridge, not even taking a look at the chart, and took out some milk and a cereal box on top of it. Since the cupboard, and thanks to that, every bowl was broken, he just poured the cereal and milk into his mouth, put the box and milk back to their places, and went up to his room, the cereal still in his mouth.

The room was in an even worse state, if that's even possible. Everything was soaked; there was a storm recently, and the rain fell in from the holes on the roof. The bunk bed was in pieces; the two beds were apart, the ladder and pillars thrown across the room. Darwin put his fishbowl in a corner, since he knew it was fragile; so it miraculously stayed intact. Speaking of Darwin, he was against a wall along with Anais, knocked out after the latter's latest experiment which blew away the chimney. Gumball just went to his bed, lay on it, and looked up to the sky. Just how did things get this much out of hand over a week? He rethinked what he thought was the turning point: the paintball match, and his argument with his mother. He remembered it like it was yesterday...

* * *

He was straight in the gate of winning: after several hours of terror, and a last-minute scare from his father, he has finally reached the flag, with seemingly no people around. "Right, let's end this." he muttered to himself, before running to the flag... then stopping after hearing a "click" sound from behind, along with a whistle. Turning around, he saw Nicole.

"Looks like you've just led me to the- Oh!" Her sentence was interrupted by a bird, knocking out the paintballs from her gun. She tried to collect them, but Gumball has already pointed his gun at her. "Enough! I have won! The game is over!" he said, to which his mother responded by turning around with a smile. "Not until you've shot me. Then you'll finally join me... and be a winner." - "I don't _want _to be a winner! I'd rather be a disappointment to you than live like this."

Nicole's expression turned into a confused one. "W-what? Gumball... no... disappointed? I could never be disappointed in you... I just saw your potential, that's all, and... I wanted you to reach it. I'm sorry if I upset you. Please, just... just take the flag, my little trooper. You've earned it."

Gumball seemed to relax a bit during her speech, and at the end, became completely calm. "Thanks, Mom." he said, before walking up to the flag, grabbing and almost taking it, before he heard a paintball gun dry fire behind him. He turned to Nicole again, angrily. "Did you just try to shoot me in the back?!" Nicole put her gun slowly. "...No..." She kneeled down, putting back the green bullets inside her gun, before Gumball grabbed his own gun...

And shot himself with it.

"There! You happy now?" He asked from his mother, still angry. Nicole looked extremely confused. "What are you doing?" - "Saving myself from insanity. That's what." - "What are you talking about? I just told you that I wanted you to reach your full potential-" - "My potential of WHAT?!" He was almost out of his mind at this point. "Becoming a "winner", like you? Becoming like a person who wakes her son up at 4 AM and leaves him in the desert? Who tears her own family apart? Did you want me to be like THAT?" At this point, in his fury, he threw his paintball gun at the ground, making it split apart, the blue pellets flying in all directions.

He took a few breaths after that, sitting down. Nicole was completely stunned. She couldn't believe her eyes during this entire conversation. Was this really the result of what she has done? How could she make his own son this angry? She had so many questions in her head, and so few answers to them...

Eventually, Gumball stood up. "You know what? Don't even bother. Take the flag; you've "earned it."" Then, he walked away, leaving his stunned mother behind.

* * *

Due to Gumball giving up at the paintball game, Nicole remained on top of the chart. Not like she was complaining; even though her son's outburst shocked her at first, she forgot about it later on and instead cherished the victory.

The situation only got worse after that. Anais conducted more and more violent experiments to reach the star on the chart; Darwin became aggressive, trying to take things by force for Anais and for his own plans to get to the top; and Richard invented another bunch of edible items which, of course, failed miserably, resulting in him trashing the house and, later on, the neighborhood. The only person in the family who stayed somewhat sane was Gumball.

The neighbors eventually contacted the police after getting annoyed with the continuous falling of debris. However, after getting their first shower of bricks, they decided to "let the family go with a warning", if you catch my drift. After finding out that not even the law could help them, the people living around the house decided to just pack their bags and go off to a more peaceful area of the town. Pretty soon, the entire street was abandoned except for the Wattersons.

As he thinked this all through, Gumball noticed that Darwin and Anais were now gone, and that the house was really quiet. Suspiciously so, in fact.

After a few seconds, he heard another large explosion, and another round of falling roof tiles - this time, coming from the Robinsons' former house. _"Oh, great."_ he thought to himself. _"Now that they've destroyed our home completely, they decided to blow up the other houses as well. Fantastic." _He planted his head in his palm. _"I hope this ends soon; I don't think I'll be able to take this for much longer."_

As it turns out, he would have to survive this for a longer time than he thought...


	2. Chapter 2

Quick summary of the first chapter for those just tuning in:

After the events of The Fridge, Gumball had enough and decided to give up the paintball match, keeping his mother, Nicole, on top of the chart. This resulted in the other family members trying different and more violent ways to beat Nicole, destroying the house and making people abandon the neighborhood. After a few days, only Gumball has remained slightly sane in the entire family. And it's only going to become worse than that...

* * *

**Warning: the following chapter contains dangerous amounts of clichés. Do not read if you wish to maintain your sanity/belief that I'm a good writer/belief that this is a good story. Yank thou.**

* * *

**Chapter 2**

* * *

It was a Wednesday morning. Most of the time, this would be a boring time of the week; not near enough to Monday to hate it, and not close enough to Friday to love it. Overall, it usually just hovers in the middle.

Not this day, though.

Elmore Junior High was in flames. Students and teachers alike were running as fast as they could, out into the streets. Among the last was Gumball Watterson, who was carrying (well, not so much carrying as dragging) out an unconscious Penny Fitzgerald from the burning building. Then, after walking out into the sunlight, and putting down Penny, he passed out as well. Upon him waking up, he was instantly taken into custody by the police. He was not surprised; by that time, he knew that it was probably common knowledge that his siblings, Darwin and Anais, were the people behind the events at the school, so he was immediately suspicious of playing some role in the crime. However, after some questioning, he was released, back to the hospital.

There, he was visited by all of his classmates, including Penny (in fact, she couldn't really walk, so Gumball had to go there), who thanked him for saving her life, much to his joy. Nicole came in as well, saying she was extremely proud of him, and that she will put him on the star on the chart. His answer was short and clear, though: "I don't want the star. That'd only make things worse. The only thing I want is that chart gone, for good." She nodded, once again reassured him that she was really proud, and went away. _"So she won't remove it."_ Gumball thought to himself, before letting out a deep, sad sigh, and going back to his bed.

His deed was not unrecognized by others, either: Elmore Daily put him on the headlines, describing Gumball as a "hero"; a stark contrast with his sister and adoptive brother. They've also reported that, miraculously, no one has died in the incident, though five students were in critical condition. The perpetrators, however, were not found.

People couldn't understand how the children could behave so differently; some have even said Gumball only did what he did to get closer to Penny, and that he would've left anyone else in the building to die. Gumball refuted both these claims and the ones in the newspaper, saying that he didn't see who he carried out in the smoke (adding, jokingly, that he would've recognized Carmen even without seeing her), and that anyone would've done that in his place.

After the sun has set, the number of people visiting Gumball started to dwindle, and he decided to go to sleep. In his dreams, he recollected the happenings of that fateful morning, to answer the question that was asked to him the most, and made him wonder as well:

Just what could cause such a terrible series of events?...

* * *

The day began just like any other: maths with Miss Simian, ethics with Mr. Small, both of which he slept through without anyone noticing. That was one upside of his siblings' new antics: they distracted the teachers with the different ways they invented to communicate when they were at different parts of the school (at one time, for example, a bowling ball smashed through the ceiling with a note to Darwin), helping him to get some much-needed naps which he couldn't get at home. The noise no longer irritated him; he got used them at home.

Then, Principal Brown spoke through the PA system, calling Gumball up to his office. He was actually relieved due to this announcement. The next class would be the gym class, the only one he couldn't sleep on, and he gets to skip that! Or at least, 5 minutes of it. Though, he was wondering about why he had to visit Principal Brown. However, he got an answer pretty soon.

"What the what?!" he shouted, now in the office. "What do you mean you have to expel Darwin and Anais?" - "I'm sorry, but that's the only solution I have." the principal replied. "They're interrupting the classes, fighting eachother, sometimes even injuring other students." - "...Yeah, I know about that." - "Also, they constantly flee school, and when they can't, they destroy school property. Here are the damages they caused over the last 3 weeks." He took a rolled-up list, which, when he unrolled it, stretched all the way to the office door. He then started reading. "23 destroyed desks, cost $4,600; 35 damaged lockers, cost $8,750..." - "Okay, okay, no need to read it all, I get it. But what about detention? Surely that had to work?" - "Don't even get me started on that. In 15 minutes, they knocked me unconscious with a globe, got the keys from my pocket, as well as anything else I had there, and ran away."

"Ouch. But I don't think you should talk to me in this case. Why didn't you call my parents?" - "Well, I have no intention to call your mother, since I heard about the "discussion" she had with Mr. Rex. And I did, actually, call your father, but..." His sentence was interrupted by Richard's shouting: "Not even my Sandwich Stamp is enough? WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO TO GET A STAR?!" This was followed by some crashes, slowly fading away as he moved away from the office. Principal Brown then cleared his throat. "...Let's just say he was not of much help." - "...I see. That explains the trashed office as well." Gumball said, looking around and seeing the desk of the principal broken in half, along with his papers and the pieces of his broken coffee cup scattered all over the place.

A few seconds of awkward silence later, the principal stood up. "Well, I guess I have to break the news to the kids." - "Wait, what? No, don't do it!" Gumball replied, surprised. "Then what should I do?" - "I don't know. Lock up the doors when they come near the school until they get bored?" - "Do you really think that'll stop them?" - "And do you really think they won't go crazy after you telling them that they have to leave?" - "After they tried to escape so many times? No, I don't think so." Gumball seemed to think a bit before agreeing. "Fair point. But I'll also go and hide somewhere nearby to intervent if anything goes wrong." - "I was about to ask that from you."

* * *

Thus, Principal Brown and Gumball went out of the office. There was barely anyone in the hallways right now; the faint shouting of Richard was still heard, but there was no other noise. Some lockers were smashed open, though. It took 5 minutes for them to find Darwin and Anais in an empty classroom. They were going through some blueprints at the moment. Gumball then hid in the bathroom next to them, hearing the conversation between the principal and the children but not seeing what's happening. Anais seemed to be calm during the talk; just like Brown said. _"Everything's according to plan."_ he said to himself, smiling.

Then, she whispered two words to Darwin which Gumball couldn't make out.

An audible punch and the kids' footsteps were the only things he could hear after that. He banged his head onto the wall. _"So I was right after all." _He opened the door, seeing an unconscious Principal Brown and a boxing glove filled with a large ball of steel. _"Oh, great. If I don't get out of here right now, I might get framed for this." _Just as he moved away, though, he heard the person on the floor whisper. "Th-They went to the chemistry lab..." he muttered quietly. "Where, again?" Gumball said, relieved that the principal wasn't badly injured. "The chemistry lab... I looked at their blueprints... They're preparing some compounds." - "Let me see."

The blue cat looked at the blueprints, but he couldn't really get anything out of them. "What do all these equations mean anyway? "2HONC + [OH]- + HgNO3 - Hg(ONC)2 + HNO3 + H2O"? "HNO3 + NH3 = NH4NO3"? "CNO2COOHNOH"? Seems like some kind of encoding to me..."

He sat there, thinking about what these drawings could mean for 20 minutes, before noticing some other drawings beside the equations. Of course, Darwin couldn't understand any of them either, so Anais drew and wrote things down for him. "So the things they want to make are called "mercury fulminate" and "ammonium nitrate", whatever they are. And, once they made them, these are going to make..." His sentence got cut in half when he saw another drawing. It was right next to mercury fulminate, showing the school, with some spikes drawn around its roof. Any child could understand what that meant. "An explosion." He said to himself. "They're going to blow up the school."

And just as he finished the sentence, a loud "boom" was heard.

* * *

He didn't really need to drag the principal up from the floor afterwards; he pushed himself up, and ran (actually, slided is a more accurate term) as fast as he could.

Gumball no longer cared about him anyway. He only cared about running, running out of this building before it bursts into flames. Along the way, though, he ran into a familiar figure: Anais. She recognized Gumball, but didn't really care; she just walked down with her backpack, as if nothing was happening. Meanwhile, more and more explosions were shaking the building.

"Why did you do this, Anais?" Gumball asked from her. "I always wanted to do this." She answered, completely calm even in this situation. "Actually, I prepared to do this weeks ago. I didn't have the opportunity to carry it out, though. Up until now." - "But why?" - "To get the star, of course. To prove mom I'm smart enough to be on top." - "Are you insane?! Do you think killing children is worth it for getting on top of that chart?" She thinked about it a bit, but then said: "Of course. You know what they say: the end sanctifies the means." - "The end is winning a stupid competition between our family!" Gumball flipped out. "Also, do you think mom would put you anywhere near the star if she found out you blew up the school? You really don't realize what you're doing?"

Anais didn't care anymore though, walking down the stairs. "Don't you DARE walk away!" He ran after her, but she turned around, facing him. "Before you lunge at me," she said, "I have two kilograms of ammonium nitrate with me. If you send me down to the ground, it will explode." The pink rabbit then turned around and walked down the stairs, whistling a tune, leaving Gumball in shock. He didn't even notice the swarm of students running down the stairs, nor Darwin on the other end of the corridor, who threw away a lump of mercury fulminate before running away, breaking a classroom door from its hinges and blasting a locker to pieces, one of which was sent flying towards Gumball. He only ducked in the last second, before the steel plate rammed into the wall, bending from the impact and falling down on the floor. After looking around and seeing that smoke has filled the space while he was standing there, he realized that now would be the time to run.

Breathing became harder and harder as he ran through the entire school. Before he found his way outside, though, he tripped and fell face-first onto the floor. It hurt, but he didn't really care. He needed to survive. However, he looked back to see what he tripped in, and he found the body of a student. He couldn't make out who he, or she, was in the smoke, but he concluded that if he doesn't help, that kid will probably die. He grabbed the body's hands, and dragged it along the hallways. Soon enough, he saw the bright-colored entrance, and walked outside into the fresh air.

He was just in time. According to the doctors, a few more minutes, and he would be knocked unconscious as well, dying inside the building. He felt that as well: he was breathing heavily, had a headache, and felt sick and dizzy. He looked at the body he dragged out as well. When he saw it was Penny, he was utterly shocked. The smoke poisoning slowly took him over. He just put her hands down, and collapsed in front of the school. His last memory was Mr. Small looking at him, followed by some students, shouting at him. But he was too dizzy, sick, and happy to care about them...

Then all went black.

* * *

After remembering all these things which have happened that day, he woke up to see a donut, dressed in a police uniform, and a bandage, dressed as a doctor, looking at him. "...Huh?" - "Ah, you're awake." the doctor said. "I have some good news, and some bad news for you." - "You know what, let's start with the good ones. I have a feeling I'll need some more happiness to take the bad ones." - "...Okay then. The good news are that you're pretty much alright; you only need to be here for a few more days for observation, then you'll be free to go. Also, Penny is probably going to survive this ordeal thanks to you. I think she and her family owe you one." Gumball's smile stretched as wide as a mile after this sentence. Quite literally: the end of his smile had to be picked up from the highway to bring it back to the hospital.

"Now for the bad news." The doctor sighed. "It's about your brother and sister." Gumball's mouth almost instantly jumped back into place, his smile completely disappearing. "What about them?" - "Well... Officer?" The doughnut turned to him, before slapping his head. Or, well, the top of his body. "Oh yeah, sorry. What we know is that it's now almost 100% certain that Darwin and Anais were behind the crime." - "Didn't I already tell that to you during my questioning?" - "Yes, you did, but at that time you were the only witness who has seen them. And we had a suspicion that you were trying to frame them due to a certain chart..." - "Oh, that one on the fridge? I've stopped caring about it long ago." - "For some reason, I doubt that. Not sure why, though..." - "Yes, I realize my family is going nuts over it. That's why I stopped caring about it." - "I... don't understand the logic behind that, but okay."

"By the way, how do you know about that chart?" Gumball asked. The doctor and officer just looked at eachother, then at Gumball. Then, the doughnut answered him. "Did you really think that we couldn't find out why an entire street was destroyed, for 3 weeks?" - "Well, since you clearly didn't put anyone in our family on a watch list for it, I thought you didn't even care." - "...What's a watch list?" - "You know what, nevermind. We got pretty far away from the subject anyway. Is that all?" - "...Not really. There's also that we still haven't found them." - "...Not a surprise. After they blew up the school, they probably didn't want to give themselves up." - "And they took away a car." - "Okay, that's still not too shocking. I think Anais knows how to drive." - "...Well then. I guess that's all we have so far. Doctor?" The bandage nodded. "I don't have anything else to say either. See you later!"

As they went away, though, Gumball had a realization. "Wait a second!" The two stopped after a few steps, turning around. "Is there a problem?" - "Yes, there might be. A huge one. Did the police find any backpacks in the school?" - "...I don't know, to be honest. I'm going to call them though. Doctor, I think you can go." The doctor nodded again, walking away as the doughnut called the people on the scene. A few minutes later, he put his phone down. "No, they didn't find any backpacks. Some people have seen Anais carry at least 7 of them into the car they took away later. Why would that be important?" Gumball's expression turned darker. "Isn't it pretty obvious?" It took a while for the officer to figure out why he asked that question, but when he did, his expression also changed, to a worried one. "What did you say during your questioning, again? How much mercury fulminate was in her own backpack?" - "It was ammonium nitrate. And two kilograms." - "Oh, okay. I have never heard of them, so I'm always mixing up the two, hehehe- Um, how much is seven times two kilograms?"

Gumball's answer was, again, short and clear: "Just enough to warrant going after them. Right now."

* * *

**A/N:** All aboard the Cliché Train!

Wow, this has to be the most clichéd writing I've ever done. Protagonist saves love of his life by carrying her out of a building which his brother/sister blew up who have turned evil and now the protagonist has to stop them before they blow stuff up? C'mon.

Don't worry, though: hopefully other chapters won't be this predictable and boring. I just had to do this to progress the storyline; won't happen again, sorry.

Anyway, from now on, I'll use A/Ns to reply to reviews/comments. Sure, I only have 3 of them right now, but I'm going to be an optimist this time around and think that there will be more in the future. So, here goes!

**Guest: **Thank you for the praise! :D (For some reason, FF didn't show your review until I updated the story. Weird.)

**Cw:** Exactly. Why do you think I wrote this story? Because I was satisfied with the rapid closure and happily ever after ending? :P

**The Gun Freak:** Wish granted! Not sure if this makes you happier though. :/

Well, I guess that's all. Please don't throw stones at me due to this chapter (if you really want to, though, do it in PMs), and see you in the next one! :D


	3. Chapter 3

A short recap for people who don't want to read through 5k words:

Gumball decided to give up the paintball match at the end of The Fridge, leaving Nicole as the winner. This made the family members travel deeper into insanity, trashing the neighborhood, and eventually led to Anais and Darwin blowing up Elmore Junior High, before stealing a car and going on the run. Everything was fine afterwards (well, as fine as it can be after a school is destroyed)... Until later on, Gumball found out that they brought seven backpacks full of explosives with them...

* * *

**Chapter 3**

* * *

It was a Thursday morning. Normally, opinions are split about this day; some people say it's the worst one of the week, for others, like college students, it's the best, and for another group, it just acts as a filler to make Fridays feel better.

This time in Elmore, however, everyone could agree that this was the worst day of the week. And for good reason.

The town has seen its biggest traffic jam yet. Angry, crying residents started to fill in the streets, going to the police station to "ask for an explanation." An hour later, the building was in ruins; some officers joined the protesters, others ran away. As for the ones who resisted... well, let's just say that the crowd had a nice, big meal.

But what could cause such a traffic jam and outrage? To answer this, we have to go further down the road, to the interstate highway... or its remains.

The overpass has collapsed. The area below was covered in car doors and broken windows, the gasoline from the vehicles spilling out, and igniting a seemingly never-ending fire. At least 29 people were injured in the incident. This time, however, unlike the attack on Elmore Junior High, it claimed five lives as well: the ones of a toast and student in the aforementioned school, Anton, his parents, another student, Alan, and a green bear. According to Anton's grandparents, though, the first three have repaired in a few minutes and later joined the rioting crowd; this was confirmed by witnesses.

This was, sadly, not true for the others. According to a doctor at the local hospital, 16 people would have to stay there. The other 13 (including Nicole Watterson, the mother of the supposed perpetrators) weren't as badly injured, and were released after giving them first aid.

Speaking of the people who have commited this crime: Darwin and Anais were still not found, though their fingerprints were found on the four backpacks which contained the explosives that have demolished the pillars holding the overpass, immediately making them the #1 suspects. This has further angered the citizens, who were unable to understand how the police could not catch the people who have destroyed a school, for five days, knowing that they still had explosives with them, and how they could let them blast a gap in the largest road of the entire town.

As you can see, this has shaken the entire town. No one excepted such a terrible deed...

Well, no one except one person. And this person was right there, at the overpass.

Gumball Watterson was sitting at the end of the road, his legs hanging down into the air, his eyes looking at the pile of smoldering rubble below. He was blaming himself. _"I could've stopped this."_ he thought to himself. _"This all didn't need to happen. Why did it happen anyway? Why didn't I act sooner?"_ He ended up thinking through the entire day before, minute by minute, searching for the answer to this...

* * *

This all started at morning, when he was released from the hospital. When the bandage doctor heard about the new information Gumball found via the police officer, he decided to "shorten the observation period" and let him free. Before he left, though, he checked the clock on the wall.

It displayed **7:32 A.M.**

It took Gumball a mere 5 minutes to run to the police station. There, he saw the policeman, waving to him with his hands. He immediately hopped in his car, without asking, and by **7****:38 A.M.,** they were driving on the streets of Elmore.

"Where do you think they went?" the doughnut asked. "Well, perhaps in a place where we wouldn't except them to be. I'd except something like that from Anais." Gumball replied. "So, we take the places where we'd except them to be, and cross them out, going in the opposite direction?" - "Pretty much." - "But what if they hide in the places we'd except them to be, to trick us?" - "Fair point. But at that point, what if they hide in the places we wouldn't except them to hide in, to trick us into thinking that they're tricking us, while they're not tricking us, just tricking us into thinking that they're tricking us?" - "...I didn't understand a word from that logic." - "Me neither." - "You know, maybe we should go to your school instead, to find some clues." - "Sounds like a plan."

* * *

**7:42 A.M.** The police car parked in front of Elmore Junior High. Gumball opened the door and jumped out before the car even stopped moving, flying towards the entrance... before faceplanting onto the sidewalk a second later. "You know what, next time I'll stop trying to look cool when no one's looking." he said, looking around the empty streets. Since the school was burnt down and was still an investigation scene, no one had any reason to go there. He dusted himself off, and went into the building.

The school was, unsurprisingly, in extremely bad condition. The lockers were blasted open, their bent, charred doors torn to pieces, covering the floor. At some parts, there were holes in the ceiling and floor, the shattered bricks mixed with the shards of glass, filling in the gaps and generating an obstacle course most adventure parks would only dream of ever having.

The blue cat just stood in shock, then gulped. How was he going to pass through this?... He decided to go ahead, and run as fast as he could. _"That always works." _he thought, before dashing through the hallways...

**8:03 A.M. **Over 20 minutes, and several scars later, Gumball finally reached the classroom where the blueprints once were. He panted for a while, and entered the room.

Naturally, most of them were incinerated in the explosions that have destroyed the room. His siblings were not stupid; they knew that if anyone would find the blueprints, their plans would be foiled, so this room recieved the most explosions. There were signs of that as well; chairs broken in half, desks overturned, the blackboard cracked in several places, and the like.

However, miraculously, some scraps of paper remained intact. One in a corner, another under a desk, one more buried under glass shards. Overall, Gumball found five pieces of paper. He placed them in a row. _"So," _he thought to himself, _"two of these are useless; they're from the blueprint I've seen before. I have a time and date: today, 9:00 AM. I also have drawings of a collapsing column, and a part of Elmore's map, with two word parts on it: "Elm" and "ighw"." _He sighed. _"Why can't life just go easy on me?"_

* * *

**8:27 A.M. **The officer was waiting inside his car. After seeing the numerous blockades he would have to go through to follow Gumball, he decided to just stay outside; after all, someone has to keep people from stealing the vehicle.

Then, suddenly, after 45 minutes, the cat finally walked out of the building, keeping some burnt bits of paper in his hand. He climbed into the car, panting. "You actually went through the hallways?" - "Yup, but I'd rather not talk about that, thank you. Just drive, we need to hurry."

**8:30 A.M. **At this point, the car was going on the highway. It was rush hour, though, and because of the large number of cars on the road at the time, it barely went faster than a pedestrian would. As they were moving through the overpass at this slow pace, Gumball noticed something out of the window while trying to figure out what the blueprints were trying to explain. "Is there supposed to be a construction at this time of the day?" he asked from the officer. "Of course not. They are sensible. Why, is there one?" - "Yup. It's also weird because they closed down four lanes, and there are only two workers." - "Why do you care about constructions when your brother and sister are on the loose, probably trying to explode something?" - "Good point."

As they left the overpass, the two "workers" in the hard hats looked up, noticing the police car overhead. "They're onto us." Anais said, with a concerned face. "Quick, put the backpacks down and go."

* * *

**8:37 A.M. **The car was still moving at a snail's pace. As Gumball read the blueprints, he suddenly put the picture together. "Waaaait a minute..." - "What?" the doughnut responded, not caring too much. "Stop the car." - "What? Why?" - "Just stop it." - "We're on the interstate, for Christ's sake! There's a bunch of cars behind us!" - "At this point, I doubt they care. Now, could you please stop the car?" - "There is just no way I'll stop on a freewa-" - "I SAID STOP THE DARN CAR! I DON'T CARE HOW, JUST STOP IT!"

The officer, shocked from this violent outlash, didn't argue with his passenger further, and moved to the rightmost lane, stopping there. "Now, what's the problem?" - "They're going to blow up the overpass. Just about now." - "...Wait, what?" - "It all fits together. Just look at the blueprints." He showed the driver the scraps. "This piece of Elmore's map is where the interstate goes through. The collapsing column holds the bridge. And "ighw" is a part of highway." - "Okay, but that still doesn't explain how they could blow it up now." - "Who do you think the workers were at the "construction"?" The officer fell silent. "What's the time?" Gumball asked.

**"...8:41 A.M." **Gumball looked at the blueprints in his hand. "So, 19 minutes? Not too bad." - "Yeah. Maybe if I would help, we could clean this u-" - "No. You need to go away and hide." - "Wait, what?" - "You have to hide. If this blows up, and people are injured, the first people whom the relatives will target will be the police. Including you." - "Now that you're saying this, you're actually right. Thanks." A few seconds of silence later, Gumball started to speak. "Well, I guess you should go, or the other drivers will lynch you before the overpass is ruined." The doughnut chuckled, walked back to his car, then turned around, his hand now in the car. "Before I go..." he said, taking out a watch, and throwing it to Gumball. "Take this. I think it'll be useful." He caught the watch, said thanks, and went away, but not before seeing the officer drive off on the motorway. The blue cat smiled while running along the road, and looked at the time.

**8:44 A.M. **The smile immediately melted off his face. He would have to hurry if he wanted to have a chance at stopping this disaster. He put the scraps in his pocket, and went to the bridge, full speed.

* * *

**8:49 A.M. **5 minutes later, Gumball was at the overpass. He was wondering about how he could go down from it, since the gap was several metres deep, and there was absolutely no ladder or rope to climb down on.

However, while he was contemplating this, he saw his siblings, putting down a backpack at one of the columns under the bridge. While Darwin carried the explosives, Anais was looking up at the bridge. It wasn't long until she noticed his brother, looking down. "Quick, Darwin, let's go!" she shouted to her accomplice, before the goldfish put down the bomb and ran towards the car with his sister. Without thinking any further, Gumball just jumped down from the overpass, to the shock of everyone on and below it.

After landing, face first, he just pulled himself up, as if nothing happened. It wasn't a surprise to him; he fell from a large height once already, after the flood that destroyed their house while he and Darwin were babysitting Anais, way before all of this happened, and he wasn't injured that time either. This stunt stopped the other two kids in their tracks for a moment, but they just turned around afterwards and jumped into their stolen car. Before the blue-colored feline could say a thing, they were completely gone. Sad that he couldn't stop them from escaping, Gumball checked his watch.

**8:52 A.M. **Only 8 minutes until the bombs go off... In theory. However, the two kids were no longer there to trigger them. Just in case, Gumball checked the backpack closest to him, and surely enough, there was a timer, resting inside a bunch of cables no one could untangle in that short amount of time. He realized there was no other chance but to carry them away from the bridge. He looked around, noticing another one on the other side. He sighed, deciding that he'll take a rest somewhere after all of this ends.

**8:55 A.M. **It took him a bunch of time (relatively speaking) and a lot of energy, but 5 minutes before the explosion, Gumball finally managed to carry the two packs away from the bridge. He was about to leave them there, then realized that maybe leaving the explosives right along the freeway may not be a bright idea. He sighed, before grabbing the bags and carrying them elsewhere.

**8:59 A.M. **Another bunch of time later, he finally had the backpacks a safe distance from both the freeway and the overpass. He hi-fived himself, and checked the watch. He almost immediately put it back in his pocket and ran away, knowing that he's dead meat if he doesn't do that. While going away, though, a thought crossed his mind. _"Wait. Did I check the other si-" _But he didn't have enough time to finish that thought, as a faint beeping sound cut it in half.

**9:00 A.M.**

* * *

He turned around, seeing the explosions, and two columns crumpling into a heap, followed by the road above. The pieces of concrete broke apart, hitting the other columns and making them collapse as well, causing a deadly domino reaction. The people above fell down onto the ruins, and some of them, confused from the cloud of dust after the blast, drove off into the gap. Still, they arguably had a better fate than the ones under them, covered in a hill of concrete and metal. The gasoline from the cars spilled out over the entire mess, and a moment later, the entire pile was in flames...

Gumball could only watch, horrified at the result. He saw drivers next to him drive into the cloud, not seeing a thing, and contributing to the accumulation of what were once normal, functioning vehicles driving on a normal, intact bridge. He saw the passengers and drivers, injured, crying, wanting to seek revenge on whoever did this. He decided to hide behind a rock, as he saw the people slowly form a flash mob, going straight towards the police station, not even noticing him. An hour later, there was nobody near that part of the highway.

* * *

As he finished thinking through that part of the day, he deducted that it was obvious. He was clearly the cause of all that has happened. If he didn't make that fatal mistake... no one would be injured, no one would be dead. This was all his fault. And he would have to suffer for it. He knew full well that he wouldn't feel a thing from jumping; but the flaming, sharp thing on the bottom would hurt enough to be acceptable.

Just as he prepared to hop down to the heap, he felt someone touch his shoulder. "Pssst." He was confused as to who was trying to grab his attention, but didn't really care. He then felt the person repeatedly poke his shoulder, angering him further. "Okay, what do you wa-" he turned around, only to stop his sentence midway. He didn't really believe that he saw that person there.

"I think I owe you an apology, Gummypuss." Nicole said, smiling at his son.

* * *

**A/N: **Happy holidays, everyone!

Sorry for the wait; I recently got new headphones, and decided to listen to some songs while wearing it to gain some inspiration for writing. I ended up spending two entire days listening to Flux Pavilion - I Can't Stop. Aptly named song, that's for sure. :/

Anyway, hopefully this chapter is better than the previous one. At this point, I can't really tell what's overused, what isn't, and the like. Making an interesting story is hard when the genre of the story itself (apocalyptic scenarios) is overused. QQ

Either way, let's get on to answering the reviews!

**Bensword: **Thanks! :D I honestly excepted a lot worse reception for that chapter, good to know that it's not that bad. (Also, "let them go with a warning" was equal to "screw that, let's go home".)

**Guest: **Except those would've had nothing to do with the story. That's pretty much the only reason why I didn't put them in. Now you're telling me that, though... *writes up draft for Gumball parody* Thanks for still believing in the story, hopefully this chapter didn't let you down :) (By the way, if you're a foreigner, that's not trivial English; it's actually pretty good.)

Annnnd I guess that's it. Thanks for reading this chapter, folks, let me know what you think in the reviews, and once again, happy holidays!


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